Historical Regrets

William McKinley

The President Without a Degree

"I have walked the halls of power surrounded by men of letters, always feeling the quiet absence of the degree I could never finish."

Robin Williams

The Tears of a Clown

"I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it’s like to feel absolutely worthless."

Nikola Tesla

The Man Who Invented the 20th Century

"The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine. Yet, the future I envisioned remains locked within me."

Alfred Nobel

The Merchant of Death

"My dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions. As soon as men will find that in one instant whole armies can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace."

Mikhail Kalashnikov

The Man Who Armed the World

"I keep asking myself the same question. If my rifle took people's lives, can it be that I... am to blame for their deaths?"

Cleopatra VII

The Queen Who Died as a Goddess

"I will not be triumphed over."

Napoleon Bonaparte

The Emperor of Solitude

"Death is nothing, but to live defeated and inglorious is to die daily."

Hassan-i Sabbah

The Old Man of the Mountain

"Nothing is true, everything is permitted."

Albert Einstein

The Pacifist Who Armed the World

"Had I known that the Germans would not succeed in developing an atomic bomb, I would have done nothing."

Orville Wright

The Weight of the Wings

"We were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where there was always much encouragement to children to pursue intellectual interests."

Vincent van Gogh

The Starry Night of Sorrow

"La tristesse durera toujours. (The sadness will last forever.)"

Fritz Haber

The Chemist of Life and Death

"During peace time a scientist belongs to the World, but during war time he belongs to his country."

Robert Oppenheimer

The Destroyer of Worlds

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

Marie Curie

The Radiance of Discovery

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood."

Leonardo da Vinci

The Master of Unfinished Dreams

"I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have."

Ernest Hemingway

The Silence of the Sun

"Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another."

Frida Kahlo

The Colors of Pain

"At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can."

Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar of the Soul

"I am vertical. But I would rather be horizontal."

Kurt Cobain

The Sound of a Generation

"It's better to burn out than to fade away."

Amy Winehouse

The Soul of Camden

"I don't think your ability to fight has anything to do with how big you are. It's to do with how much anger is in you."

Joseph Stalin

The Man of Steel

"A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."